Blagojevich Case Used by Republican-Allied Foes of Labor Bill By Kim Chipman and Jonathan D. Salant
Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The 30-second television spot opens with a picture of Chicago’s skyline and a mug shot of an allegedly corrupt governor. Then another photo bleeds onto the screen of a labor union boss with ties to the politician.
It may sound like a preview for the latest mobster-inspired drama. Instead, the commercial is a not-so-subtle attempt to implicate one of the fastest growing U.S. labor organizations, the Service Employees International Union, in the corruption scandal swirling around Illinois Democrat Rod Blagojevich.
The aim isn’t mere union bashing. The larger goal behind the ad campaign is to derail controversial legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize, the so-called card-check proposal.
“We will keep hammering on this,” said lobbyist Richard Berman, referring to the Blagojevich scandal. He heads Center for Union Facts, a Washington-based group that ran a full-page ad in the New York Times last week that sought to discredit the card- check measure by connecting the Illinois governor and SEIU.
Along with Americans for Job Security, a separate organization that paid for the recent television ads, the groups are following a common tactic of Washington’s influence industry: a clear message funded by hard-to-trace benefactors.
Both are incorporated under a federal tax-code section that allows them to keep their donors secret. They declined to release a list of those funding them.
SEIU President Andy Stern, featured in the newspaper ad, called on Berman to release the names of his group’s contributors.
‘Powerful Corporations’
“What is he hiding from the American people other than there are rich and powerful corporations who want to stay that way at the expense of people that work?” Stern said.
Berman contends that union officials attack him because they want to avoid a real debate over the card-check measure.
The groups do have longstanding Republican ties.
Berman primarily donates to Republican candidates and has run similar types of campaigns to defend his lobbying clients in the food, tobacco, beverage and restaurant industries. Those campaigns included attacks on studies linking diet to obesity, and drunk-driving laws that he argued are ineffective.
The proposed card-check law would require employers to automatically recognize a union once a majority of workers indicate they want to join one by signing a card. Current rules require a federally supervised election process, including a secret ballot.
Scare Tactics
Critics say the card-check system would make employees who don’t sign cards vulnerable to scare tactics by unions. Supporters say it is the companies that often use illegal or unethical means to intimidate employees from organizing.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to fight for passing a card check law in the next Congress, which convenes on Jan. 6. His nominee for labor secretary, Democratic Representative Hilda Solis of California, has been a strong advocate for the measure.
Republicans have led opposition to the proposal, joined by a smattering of Democrats. The bill is expected to be one of the most contentious issues debated by the new Congress.
Berman says his group has spent $20 million fighting the proposal and that union members have joined unnamed companies in making contributions to the effort.
Americans for Job Security is run by former New Hampshire Republican Party executive director Stephen DeMaura. Federal Election Commission reports show his group spent $8.5 million to help Republican Senate candidates in the 2008 campaign.
‘False Call’
Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said it’s “an open secret that the money” for the ads opposing the card-check measure “is coming from the business community.” The media campaign, he said, is “a false call for democracy from murky but powerful funding sources.”
DeMaura said the issue is that SEIU was linked to Blagojevich’s alleged effort to sell a Senate seat, not who backs the ad campaign. “What is Andy Stern trying to hide from the American people?” he said, referring to the SEIU president.
The anti-card check ads have seized on allegations by federal prosecutors that Blagojevich’s effort to gain favors for filling Obama’s Senate seat included seeking a high-paying job at Change to Win, a labor federation co-founded by SEIU. Conversations by Blagojevich that authorities tape-recorded included one with Thomas Balanoff, head of SEIU’s Illinois chapter.
Union Official
Balanoff is the union official shown in the recent TV ad. Neither he nor anyone affiliated with the 2.1 million-member SEIU has been accused of any wrongdoing in the Blagojevich case.
The ad, airing in Arkansas, Nebraska and North Dakota, urges viewers to tell their senators to vote against card-check legislation. They name Blagojevich and then identify SEIU as “connected to the governor discussing the payoff.”
“It’s important to be on offense,” DeMaura said.
A third business-funded group, the Workforce Fairness Institute, has released its own video on its Web site trying to connect the SEIU and the labor legislation to Blagojevich.
The institute doesn’t disclose its donors. Its representatives include Barbara Comstock, a lobbyist and prominent Republican spokeswoman. The group lists the Center for Union Facts as an “allied group” along with two of the largest business lobbies, the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Business.
SEIU was the largest donor to Blagojevich’s re-election campaign in 2006, giving him $908,000, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. That’s highlighted in the Center for Union Facts’ ad.
‘Corrupt Groups’
“Blagojevich’s high-profile indictment has shone a light on SEIU’s propensity for doing business with corrupt groups and people,” Berman said.
The House passed the card-check measure in the last Congress, though supporters failed to get 60 votes in the Senate to bring it up for final approval. Labor political action committees made $61 million in campaign contributions for the 2008 elections, 91 percent of them to Democrats. Unions also spent $44 million in independent expenditures supporting Obama, FEC reports show.